“Glitter, eyeliner, hair dye, wigs, false eyelashes, high heels, G-strings, pasties, feather boas, Otis Redding, table dances, the economics of desire and the philosophies of the fringe, the heart of the cowgirl nation and the quiet of 3 AM.” – Viva Las Vegas
Viva Las Vegas has been a star in Portland since her arrival in 1996. Not only is she an accomplished author, exotic dancer, musician, and actress, but she is also a survivor. She speaks five languages, has lived on four continents, and graduated from the prestigious Massachusetts liberal arts school Williams College with a degree in Anthropology.
Part of Viva’s inspiration to pursue her ambitions came from an unlikely source — George H. W. Bush, who as keynote speaker at her Williams graduation ceremony encouraged her class to pursue their dreams. She “looked George square in the eye as [she] shook his hand and thanked him for his address,” knowing that from that moment forward she was “done with the talented and gifted program and was going to do whatever the fuck [she] wanted.” Pure Viva. She chose Portland by blindfolding herself and putting her finger randomly on a map. Upon arrival, she fell in love with the city and its bridges.
In the late 90s, Viva’s popular residency at the famous Chinatown strip club Magic Garden received a fateful nod from the Willamette Week, which invited her to debate another ivy league-educated woman about feminism and adult entertainment. In that conversation, among others, Viva was and has continued to be a brave voice backing strippers’ and sex workers’ rights. Viva has been a prolific writer, publishing both locally and nationally. Her band, Coco Cobra and the Killers, has recorded two albums: Want You and The “I Need Sex” Sessions. If all of that weren’t enough, Viva has also been in over a dozen films, most notably Paranoid Park and First Kiss (films by Gus Van Sant) and The Auteur (a James Westby film).
For the last year, Viva and I have been in the same rooms, at the same parties, running with the same crowd. We bowled a lane a part at a birthday party last March, and somehow were never introduced. Then early last month, a mutual friend and I decided to go by Mary’s and check out Miss Viva in action. She’s Portland’s most famous stripper, and for a good reason. She’s arguably the smartest, coolest, most talented chick in Portland. And beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, even without her trademark long, blond locks.
“And was stripping even about sex? Nine times out of ten, for the stripper it’s about performance, especially in Portland, where good old-fashioned burlesque never went out of vogue. No doubt the men come in for a frisson of sexual excitement, but men will visit their favorite foxy bartender for the same reason. All you really have to do is smile at them and they get all fired up. Ultimately, stripping is no more about sex than Boticelli’s “Venus” or modern dance. It’s performance and, to my mind, art.” – Viva Las Vegas
When you meet Viva Las Vegas these days, her punk rock hair style seems intentional. Though it’s no secret, you wouldn’t know by looking at her that she’s been battling breast cancer. If you Google “stripper mastectomy” the first thing that comes up is an interview on The Daily Beast, a blog that prompted a great deal of attention for Viva. Shortly after, Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight were calling her. Though the world is curious about Viva’s battle with cancer, her first book, a memoir called Magic Gardens: The Memoirs of Viva Las Vegas, takes place in Portland, Oregon, beginning with her arrival in the city in 1996 and ending with her departure in 2001, seven years before she was diagnosed with cancer. “It’s kind of a backhanded way to have my memoir noticed,” Viva says.
In 2001, Viva moved to New York, wrote for The Village Voice and The New York Times, witnessed 9/11, and then returned to Portland. Magic Gardens is her first memoir and the first in a series she plans to write. Viva is a natural-born storyteller and the book is captivating; reading it moved me to tears. While an insightful look into the world of someone who bares her skin as an art form, Magic Gardens is also about freedom, growth, the writing process, and untimely death’s effect on those left behind.
When she’s not busy juggling her burgeoning career, Viva agrees to an interview once in awhile. Magic Gardens: The Memoirs of Viva Las Vegas is now available for purchase at Powell’s Bookstore. I was excited to talk with Viva about the writing process and life in general. We met at Sydney’s coffee shop under the Fremont Bridge at NW 15th and Thurman, an apropos spot, since in Magic Gardens she describes how it was her favorite neighborhood to run through.
Stephanie: So Viva, what have you been working on now that your book is coming out?
Viva: I’m hosting a book bash on Tuesday, October 6th at Dante’s. It starts at 7:00pm and there will be celebrity readers, strippers, and a band, interspersed with some burlesque. The event will be black tie, even if we have to hand them out at the door.
S: Sounds like a party to me. Who’s reading so far?
V: So far Courtney Taylor-Taylor, Storm Large, Walt Curtis, Richard Meltzer, and Mona Superhero have volunteered to participate. And Coco Cobra and the Killers, my band, will be playing. I might be reenacting that scene from the memoir, where I sing a Mozart aria and do a striptease before performing with my band.
S: Sounds like a great time. Count me in. Let’s talk about the book. I feel that even though it’s about your experiences dancing in Portland, it’s also more than that. It’s about the Shoulds and What People Expect From You, How Do I Get Paid to Do What I Do What I Love, and How Am I Going to Pay My Student Loans Back. There are many levels in which people can relate to your experiences.
V: On the back cover I call it a coming-of-age-tale. Fresh out of college you have so much idealism. You want to do something like your idols have done. You want to be Jack Kerouac, you wanna hit the road and make art, and not compromise. But the thing is that it is really hard to do that in this society.
S: And not starve to death.
V: Yeah, and even when you do find some success in the arts, then that can become limiting, because people will always expect that from you then. I think when I left for New York, I was just overwhelmed, because people wanted Viva to be this specific thing. And it felt so good to go to New York and escape that, to be completely anonymous. I was exhilarated.
S: What did you do when you got to New York?
V: Hit the streets running. I called those four phone numbers [I was given at the end of the memoir] and it opened up the whole island for me. I was made, (she laughs) to use the mafia term. I was working for The Village Voice within a couple weeks, and I had a bartending gig a week after I got there, through Handsome Dick Manitoba from the Dictators. All those people helped me out.
S: It’s all who you know in this world…
V: (she laughs) I know, I guess so. And it’s hard for me to ask for anything. During this whole cancer thing, people have been asking me, “What do you need?” Telling me to have a benefit… But I just have the hardest time asking for anything. But then like for this book bash, I guess I feel more comfortable with that kind of attention. I thought, well, I’m not going to ask Courtney to read. And then I thought why not, Richard Meltzer said he’d read, and I asked Storm on a whim, and she said yes. And then Courtney said yes. You know, coming from Minnesota, people have to offer three times before you finally accept something.
S: Will you be doing any other promotion for the book?
V: Yes, on Monday, October 26th, I’ll be giving a reading at Powell’s Bookstore. And then the book tour starts: Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. But for now, I’ve got my hands full planning the premier book bash.
S: In MG you mention that your given name is unpronounceable to anyone outside of Norway. How do you pronounce your name?
V: It’s Liv, like Leev. But once I spell it for people, they can never pronounce it right.
S: Really? It’s not that hard to say. Leeeev. But I like Viva.
V: The worst is when guys will come into the club and try to be cool calling me by my real name, but then totally pronounce it wrong. But I love my job. And if I never have a job again that I love this much, at least I’ve had it for thirteen years. Thirteen years this September 30th, Viva Las Vegas Day.
A Woman Sitting Next To Us: I’m not eavesdropping. Okay, I am. I should be writing about the two of you…
V: That would be very meta…
S: Are you worried about how the people you know will react once they read it? Do your parents know about your book?
V: They know about it, yeah. They were not looking forward to it for a long time, but then me getting cancer put things into perspective. They were okay with me doing whatever I want, as long as I’m alive. That’s what’s important. Now they’re cautious. They said, “You didn’t put anything bad about your parents in there, did you?” The nudity stuff is what I do, they can get over that. The thing I worry about the most are the words that might hurt people. You never know what’s going to hurt a person. You know, my mom is going to wonder, “Did I really make you feel like that?” Or the whole part about how I don’t feel like I can love somebody because I moved around so much my whole life. They’re going to take that personally. I don’t want to hurt people.
S: Does Terri [the bartender/villain of Magic Gardens] still manage Magic Gardens?
V: Yes, she does. I’ll probably be 86ed there in a week. (We both laugh.) We should go there while we can…
S: Were you mindful of public reaction when you were editing the memoir?
V: Well, yeah. I don’t want to be sued. Even if it is the truth. It’s my truth. And the things that those people in this book did afterwards are even maybe more remarkable, and darker. And, well, life is dark.
S: Yes, there are some tragedies in your memoir. It made me cry at times.
V: Why?
S: Because I felt like there were parts that were so moving. It’s like a movie, it’s so cinematic. When your train is pulling out of Union Station, I can visualize it happening. It should be a movie.
V: A couple people have approached me. I’d like Gus to do it.
S: Well, of course!
V: He’s so Portland; he captures Portland so well. Maybe James Westby would do it. My friend, Scott Green, and I were commissioned to write a screenplay together in February for Sundance, really quick. It deserved a little more time. I would like to see the memoir become a series. There are so many characters, like Black Larry. If it was a 10-part-series, then these characters could come and go and not just have one minute. It’s the nature of a strip club, you leave and live your life, and then you go back and it gets weird all over again. I would love to work on it collaboratively.
S: It would be like your own Sex and the City, where Sex and the City meets Cheers.
V: Yes!
S: You have so many possibilities. The next month is going to be exciting for you. Let’s go to Powell’s and buy a copy.
V: Yes, and come to the book bash at Dante’s on October 6th at 7:00pm and the reading at Powell’s on October 26th at 7:30pm.
S: I’ll be there in the front row smiling at you.
V: Yes! I’ve never been happier. Bringing this book into the world is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’m surprised how immensely satisfied I feel having seen it to completion.
For more information about Viva Las Vegas:
www.vivacide.com
http://www.threemusespress.com/2009/02/magic-gardens-and-dame-rocket-press/
To purchase Magic Gardens: The Memoirs of Viva Las Vegas:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/18-9780980141948-0
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